


Never Just a Game

by Mai_Blade



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Animal Attack, BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO KIDS BECAUSE WILD POKEMON ARE MONSTERS, Blood and Gore, Child Death, Death, Do Not Post on Another Website, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Horror, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pokemon Attack, Reader-Insert, Tags May Change, or just animals following instincts but whatever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-11 09:55:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19926166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mai_Blade/pseuds/Mai_Blade
Summary: On a world where people and monsters share land, sea and air, many children set out into the world at the age of ten to survive and grow or fail and perish at the will of Pocket Monsters, more typically known as Pokemon. Some survive and perpetuate the human race while becoming Trainers, Masters, Breeders, or any number of professions. Some, however, die horrific deaths. Even adults can suddenly fall victim to the wild Pokemon, or have their children vanish without a trace.Now, come and see the various incarnations of Reader as she lives and dies and grieves in the world of Pokemon.





	1. Gothitelle's Tears

**Gothitelle: It can see the future from the movement of the stars. When it learns its Trainer's life span, it cries in sadness. [Pokémon Black 2]**

* * *

The campfire has burned down to warm, fading embers and most of your Pokémon team have returned to their Pokéballs. The exception was your longtime partner Belle, a Gothitelle who laid on the ground near you as her blue eyes fixed on the starry sky above. Lying in your sleeping bag, you folded your hands beneath your head and looked up.

It’s been eight years since you started your Pokémon adventure. You’ve never made it to challenge the Elite Four of any region you’ve been to, but you are satisfied with what you’ve experienced in your travels. You’ve made friends with both people and Pokémon, and your life is richer for having left home.

Content, you share the sight of the twinkling heavens with one of your best friends. Softly, you asked her, "Aren't they beautiful, Belle?"

"Gothitelle..."

You heard a tremble on her voice and turned your head to look at her. Seeing tears in her eyes you immediately rose on your elbow, deeply concerned. "Belle? What's wrong?"

"Gothitelle...!" Tears flowed in earnest as she sat up and cried into her small hands.

You kicked out of your sleeping bag and crawled over next to her, putting your arm around her shoulder. "Are you in pain, Belle?"

"Gothitelle!" She shook her head and looked up at you briefly before breaking out into fresh sobs. Her small frame shook with grief and your throat choked up as tears came to your own eyes, deeply affected by her unexplained suffering.

"It's okay," you managed to say, trying to keep your voice from breaking. You had never seen any of your Pokémon cry or suffer like this before, and it was breaking your heart. You tried to offer her comfort. 

"I'm here, Belle."

Your words seemed to have the opposite effect, making her flinch as her cries reached a new pitch. Her thin arms suddenly snaked out and wrapped around you as she wept into your shoulder. Her body shook and trembled as her tears soaked your shirt. Throat tightening in distress, you wrapped your arms around her and held her. Again, you tried to comfort her, choking out words to reassure her.

"It’s okay, Belle. I’m here. I’ll always be right here when you need me."

( _Gothitelle wept for the unintentional lie, knowing her trainer only meant to be kind, but she knew, the stars told her that in less than four years her beloved trainer would cold and dead and **gone**_ )

* * *

**Sorrow makes us all children again – destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing.**

**~Ralph Waldo Emerson**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so technically Reader didn't die in this chapter, but don't get hopeful about her survival rate.
> 
> Pokemon entries can be really creepy, you know? There's even videos on Youtube about it. It may seem cute and friendly in the games and anime, but I think the manga can be more realistic about the horrors of the Pokemon world. I wouldn't want to live there, thanks.
> 
> ...Especially after seeing some of them just from clips from the Pikachu Detective movie.
> 
> Feel free to submit suggestions for which Pokemon I should write about. Except from Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon because I haven't played either of them yet.


	2. Drifloon's Malice

**Drifloon: It is whispered that any child who mistakes Drifloon for a balloon and holds on to it could wind up missing. [HeartGold, SoulSilver]**

* * *

You were having a tea party in your backyard with your best friend Bun-Buns, your mother's Buneary, when a toy came out of the scary woods. You stopped your happy chatter and stared at it with wide eyes. It was on the other side of the fence and you were too small to open the gate to go get it.

"Buneary..." Bun-Buns said, worried. Her Trainer was inside watching the picture box and wouldn't be back out until either nap time or when you started crying, so it was up to her to take care of you. But that thing, that Drifloon, wasn't something she could fight. She knew by instinct that all her attacks would amount to nothing against this foe because it had a Type advantage.

And it was a foe, she knew. She could tell by the way it floated there, eying her Trainer's child and contemplating the child.

"Toy!" 

Bun-Buns startled at the sound of your excited shout. She looked at you and you pointed, saying 'toy' again in a happy voice. She shook her head, ears flapping frantically. "Buneary!"

The string appendages of the Drifloon slithered over the top of the fence. Bun-Buns became frantic as it rattled the lock on the gate. She hopped over the small plastic table and stood in front of your small body as the gate swung open.

She was knocked off balance as you suddenly ran past her towards the 'toy'. She fell and called after you frantically. "Buneary!"

You laughed and grabbed the strings of the silly toy, so different from the ribbons mommy put in your hair. They wrapped around your hand and pulled at you, tugging you towards the open gate like your mommy tugged you behind her when she was moving fast. 

"Buneary!"

You stopped laughing in surprise as Bun-Buns came out of nowhere and tried to attack your new toy! She went right through it again and again, no matter how many times she tried to break it. You were mad at first but now you knew she couldn't break your new toy so you stopped being mad at her.

You laughed again as the toy tugged on your hand. You followed after it past the fence. Maybe it wanted to go somewhere new to play.

"Buneary! Buneary!" Her eyes filled with desperate, angry tears as her Trainer's child followed after the Drifloon. This couldn't be! How could she fail to protect her Trainer's baby? " _Buneary!!_ "

She slammed her head on the ground, ears slapping the grass forcefully. No, no, _no!_ She glared and got up, hopping after you to keep you in sight. Maybe she couldn't defeat this enemy, but she wouldn't let you go alone! Wherever it was taking you, she would follow, and if she got the chance, she would take you back from it. Grim and determined, she swore to stay by your side no matter what.

* * *

Later that day, later than usual because she fell asleep in front of the television and neither you nor her Buneary woke her up, your mother will come out of the house and see the open gate. She'll call your name, frightened and scared. She'll call for her Buneary, hoping and praying. She will raise the alarm and there will be a search party and Officer Jenny will soon become involved in the case. Helpful Trainers and volunteers will be gathered to scour the woods, using both manpower and trained Pokemon.

All that, without success and only one of your hair ribbons to show for it. 

The days and then the weeks will drag on, and she will clutch that ribbon in her hand, staring at the forest and hoping, too far gone to even cry. The television will be in the trash, broken in a fit of anguished fury. Your father will come back to a silent house every evening, shoulders slumped, his expression haggard and vacant.

They will leave your room the way it is, toys scattered and bed made but missing that all-important small body. They will snap and fight each other and end up weeping on their knees in each other’s arms. Your father will be the first to let go of you, the first to lose hope of ever seeing you alive again.

But your mother will always wait for her Buneary to bring her baby back to her.

She won't let you go.

She… can’t.

( _she has failed as a mother, she knows this_ )

* * *

**He turned away, and suddenly she thought about the old children's story, where the stupid girl opens the box that God gave her, and all the evils of the world fly out, except Hope, which stays at the bottom; and she wondered what Hope was doing in there in the first place, in with all the bad things. Then the answer came to her, and she wondered how she could've been so stupid. Hope was in there because it was evil too, probably the worst of them all, so heavy with malice and pain that it couldn't drag itself out of the opened box.**

**~K.J. Parker, Sharps**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Wild Power Outage appears!  
> Wild Power Outage caught Writer by surprise!  
> Wild Power Outage attacks first!  
> Wild Power Outage uses Blackout!  
> It's super effective!
> 
> But seriously though, there was a long power outage here. From Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning, no power or internet. Dark times with heat and no fan... 
> 
> Still, hopefully there isn't another power outage anytime soon.


	3. Frillish's Methods

**Frillish: If its veil-like arms stun and wrap a foe, that foe will be dragged miles below the surface, never to return. [Pokémon Y]**

* * *

One summer, your parents took you on vacation to see the ocean. Having lived in a landlocked city, you had never seen or been to the ocean before, and you were looking forward to it. Your family had arrived in Humilau City the night before, and you had been so excited that you had had trouble falling asleep. When the morning came you could hardly drag your parents to the beach fast enough. They laughed, and took a picture while you exclaimed happily at your first sight of the endless stretch of water. 

You turned to your parents and your eyes were bright as you asked excitedly, “Where does the water end and the sky begin?”

They laughed as you dashed off to the water, and put off joining you as they set up their place on the beach. After that, they joined you in the water for a short while, splashing around a bit before retiring to their towels. Your mother alternated between watching you and reading a novel while your father slept, enjoying his time off from work. You, meanwhile, joined up with other kids and played in the sand and in the water.

It grew rather busy on the beach and there were a lot of people in the water when you took your pool tube into the water to swim and float around. Your mother had just reached the climax of her novel and your father was still sleeping, lightly snoring and in danger of getting his feet sunburned. You hung your arms over the colorful tube and watched your parents on the beach, wishing they would look so you could wave at them.

Then you began to think they might get mad at you for being so far out in the water. You were just considering swimming back when something cried behind you and you flinched, turning your head in surprise.

A pink Pokemon stared at you with red eyes, smiling as it floated not too far from you. It made the same sound and drifted a little bit closer to you. You looked around but no one seemed to be paying any attention. You looked back at the cute pink Pokemon to see that it had come even closer. You smiled at it, not knowing any better.

“Wanna be friends?”

It just kept smiling and swam closer to you. Your smile widened and you opened your mouth to talk to it again when it _touched_ you. 

Your expression twisted in pain as something slid around your legs, stinging you while it tightened its grip. Your mouth, from which only a near silent strangled cry had emerged, was still open when the pink Pokemon submerged, dragging you under with it. You were in such pain you couldn’t even think of holding on to your swim tube. Water rushed over your head as the pink monster pulled you down, down, down. You could only flail and choke on water as you sank, dragged by the Pokemon you had thought had wanted to be your _friend._

Your heart thudded wildly in your chest as terror intermingled with pain. Bubbles rose as you struggled to free yourself. Twisting around, you caught glimpses of peoples’ legs. No one was noticing you! Mommy! Daddy!

Water was inside your mouth and down your throat. The pink Pokemon had stopped stinging you, but it was still taking you down. Help! Why won’t someone _help?_

You just wanted… to be… friends…

* * *

Up above, your colorful tube bobbed in the waves. No one noticed anything amiss in the happy clamor of people having fun. Your parents didn’t miss you just yet, still reading and still sleeping, respectively. It wasn’t that much longer before your mother’s instincts prickled at her to look up from her book, but by then it’s far too late for you.

Beneath the surface of the ocean, the female Frillish was still sinking into the dark depths of the ocean, tightly holding her deceased prey. Satisfied with her hunt, she looked away from her prey as its topmost appendages floated upwards to the surface it would never break again.

It would be a long while before it would hunt on this patch of shore again, though.

* * *

**Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.**

**~Helen Keller**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader here isn't quite ten years old.
> 
> And never will be.


End file.
